In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Das spoke about the government’s expenditure and borrowing.

He said, “there is no one-to-one correlation between the increase in government expenditure… and the need for additional borrowing,” adding, “these are all figures which keep moving throughout the year.”

In Das’ opinion, the government will maintain the fiscal deficit target given in the budget. However, how the government will do it, Das could not answer about it at the moment.

“How they will do it, I will not be able to answer but the sense I have in my several discussions is that the government would be sort of committed to maintaining the fiscal deficit,” he said in the interview.

Further, Das stated that the fiscal and monetary authorities have entered into another phase of coordinated action to check inflation.

On Saturday, the Indian government announced a series of changes to the income tax structure imposed on key commodities in order to insulate consumers from rising prices amid soaring inflation.

Following the move, experts pointed out a likely increase in fiscal concerns and also raised their doubts about the government meeting its deficit target of 6.4% of GDP for 2022-23.

Two government officials told Reuters that the Indian government is considering spending an additional 2 trillion rupees ($26 billion) in the 2022/23 fiscal year to cushion consumers from rising prices and fight multi-year high inflation.

Inflation continues to be a spoilsport in slowing down economic growth going forward.

India’s CPI inflation has accelerated sharply to 7.79% in April galloping to an eight-year high due to rising food prices. This would be the fourth consecutive month that inflation is above RBI’s comfort zone.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/rbi-gov-expects-indian-govt-to-stay-on-its-fiscal-deficit-target-11653297813514.html